Kitchen Handles – A Million Options But Which One?

The choice and variety of kitchen handles these days is just amazing.

With the rise of sites like Pinterest and “Not on the Highstreet” finding something that little bit different is becoming easier and easier.

Over the years we have seen styles and fashions change from big bar handles to Cup handles, to knobs, to Wooden handles, back to bar handles, back to cups, and the story continues.

Ultimately the choice you make for the handles will change the entire look of your kitchen so it is a BIG decision.

So take your time and get a few samples.

Colours/Finishes of Kitchen Handles

Quite often the kitchen handle is a statement – and can be bright and shiny and even can be crystal or coloured.

One piece of advice we give is if you are going for shiny you will need to keep them clean, which for households with kids in – can be tough!

But whatever you choose the most important bit advice we can give is “You get what you pay for” We see lots of very cheap handles in the big DIY chains, and in the face of it they look OK.

But they are often just lacquered in the finishing colour which can quite often wear away over time and have a completely different colour underneath – you then have to either replace or live with it, but once you have drilled the holes in the doors it can be quite hard to find a style you like that has the same hole requirements.

From our experience if you are paying less that £3 per handle (for a small knob) it probably wont last the test of time.

At the other end of the scale we see handles that are over £100 each, are handmade and very bespoke.

If this is what is important to you then go for it, but when the average kitchen has £20+ handles this can be a big bill to swallow!

What’s popular at the moment – Copper kitchen handles and French copper have become very popular over the last 12 months, but the choice is limited from suppliers, this has increased a little, but when you compare what is available in Chrome and Copper – copper is lagging far behind.

We make lots of traditional handmade kitchens here at Classic Kitchens Direct and by far the most popular combination is Cup Handles and Knobs.

Traditionally you would have a cup handle on a drawer and a knob on a cupboard, but it is a rule that is broken again and again, so not set in stone.

Positioning kitchen handles – again this is a very personal choice – what one person thinks is correct another will think is wrong.

Ultimately this is down to your eye and where you think is most practical and will work best for you.

If you can keep them all level at the same height – this will help with symmetry, but again isn’t always possible.

On larger kitchen drawers it is often asked about putting two cup handles, for us we would always say no… It may look great but in reality if there are two cup handles on a drawer, the average person would only ever use one of them to open the drawer, inevitably the handle they use is not centred on the drawer as there are two and only using one, so they are putting unnecessary force on the drawer running puling it open at an angle, with a fully loaded drawer this can be quite a lot of pressure.

Drawers runners these days are very good and very strong, but it can and does sometimes cause a problem, worth thinking about.

Overall – handles don’t have to be chosen when you choose the cabinets and doors, our advice would be wait until the kitchen is installed and look at a few held up against the cabinet and decide.

Worst case scenario is you use masking tape to create a temporary handle whilst you decide!

Best case is you end up with the right handle for you and your kitchen.